Editorial | A very cruel cut

As more Kentuckians slide into poverty, five of our state's six congressmen voted Thursday to slash funding for food stamps, an action that would impoverish even more of their constituents.

In a stunningly cruel vote, Republican Reps. Andy Barr, Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie, Hal Rogers and Ed Whitfield joined most of their GOP colleagues to pass a bill to cut $40 billion over the next 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Only Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Louisville's 3rd District, voted against the bill and for the 44,000 Louisville families and more than 824,000 Kentuckians who depend on SNAP to get enough to eat.

The news comes as the U.S. Census reports that in much of the nation, the poverty rate remained stubbornly unchanged but worsened in Kentucky where about one-fifth of 4.3 million residents live in poverty, The Courier-Journal's Chris Kenning reported Thursday. For a family of four, the poverty line is a whopping annual income of about $23,500 or less.

Republicans in Indiana's Congressional delegation, including Todd Young, whose 9th District includes Southern Indiana, also turned their backs on that state's 878,000 people who need SNAP. The only Hoosier congressmen to vote against the cuts were Democrats Peter Visclosky of Merrillville and Andre Carson of Indianapolis.

The bill would cut up to 4 million people from the SNAP program next year and help drive the poor in Kentucky and Indiana deeper into poverty, in the unlikely event the Senate accepts it.

A recent study by the Congressional Budget Office found that food stamps had helped about 4 million Americans stay above the poverty line and aided millions more impoverished citizens at a time when poverty is reaching record levels.

Among Kentucky's congressmen, the vote of Mr. Rogers, who represents one of the state's poorest regions, is particularly shocking. His Southeastern Kentucky district has the state's highest number of households, 67,000, that use SNAP.

One portion of his district, Owsley County, has the distinction of being the nation's poorest county where half the families need SNAP to get enough to eat, according to The New York Times.

Yet even Mr. Rogers voted to slash a program that keeps so many people in his district and his state from going hungry.

That's the same Mr. Rogers who bristled in July when this newspaper criticized him and Kentucky's Republican House delegation for stripping the food stamp program out of the farm bill. Instead, the House passed a farm bill laden with farm subsidies and crop insurance, much of it going to benefit the agribusiness industry, including some members of Congress.

Mr. Rogers assured the people of Kentucky the House would take up the food stamp bill later. They did that all right, making even deeper cuts than called for in the original language they stripped from the farm bill.

House Republicans piously claimed the cuts would make Americans more responsible and more likely to seek employment - or else. Never mind that children are half of those who benefit from SNAP.

"The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat," said Rep. Stephen Fincher, of Tennessee.

That is the same Mr. Fincher who collected nearly $3.5 million in federal farm subsidies from 1999 to 2012, according to a data base maintained by Environmental Working Group. Mr. Fincher, a tea party Republican, apparently is all for slashing spending except for when it cuts into his farm income.

Republicans also boast about cutting waste and fraud. But a recent report by the USDA Inspector General found the error rate in food stamps very low. The bigger problem is with the farm subsidy and crop insurance.

The claims of the House GOP members who voted for the food stamp cuts are hollow. The very people they represent are going hungry.

Voters must wake up to their cynical actions and self-interest.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Editorial | A very cruel cut

As more Kentuckians slide into poverty, five of our state's six congressmen voted Thursday to slash funding for food stamps, an action that would impoverish even more of their constituents.